Saturday, February 28, 2015

I usually confine myself to posting about Rochester.
There's enough bullshit going on in our city's politics that would keep a legitimate newspaper running and reporting 24/7.
Unfortunately, we don't have anything approaching a legitimate newspaper anymore to do it.
But a statement made by Greece Town Supervisor Bill Reilich piqued my interest and raised my hackles.
It was in reference to the Town of Greece making a settlement on two women who alleged they were coerced into having sex by former Greece police officer Gary Pignato.
The sum of the settlement was never mentioned.
But Reilich stated that the settlement amount "is not one taxpayer dollar."
The insurance is supposed to cover it.
But the insurance company, Lloyd's of London, has already refused to cover the cost of litigation.
Lloyd's argument was that Pignato was "not acting within the scope of [his] duties at the time."
The Town of Greece filed a lawsuit against Lloyd's last year.
And Reilich has forgotten that taxpayer dollars paid for those insurance premiums.
If the insurance company won't pay off those two women, who will?

Friday, February 27, 2015

That is if MCDC chairman Dave Garretson has his way.
He is still reeling over Doorley's re-conversion to the Republican Party.
Garretson is hoping that having the former D.A. running against the current one will make the election lively.
He thinks that lively election campaigns bring out the voters, and most people in Monroe County are registered as Democrats.
Which doesn't explain why most of Monroe County is controlled by Republicans, including Garretson's own town of Greece.
It doesn't explain the piss-poor turnout during Rochester's mayoral campaign of 2013, which was lively if depressing.
That campaign was also enlivened by the underhanded tactics of Molly Clifford and her familiars.
What Garretson is counting on is a Green victory to punish Doorley for her defection from the Democrats.
Garretson is not asking the voters to judge Doorley or Green's records as D.A., merely their party affiliation.
The problem is that Green has said nothing about running. Or that he is even considering such a run.
Yet.
Garretson is doing all of the talking.
If Green chooses not to run, it will be yet another embarrassment for Garretson.
Garretson should be accustomed to those by now. They have been coming hard, fast and below the belt ever since he took over as MCDC chairman.
He is the one who needs Democratic victories.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Despite playing it coy for a couple of weeks and claiming he hadn't yet decided to run for re-election to his southwest district City Council seat, Adam McFadden announced that he will run for a fourth term.
It was to be expected. He hasn't got much room to maneuver for anything else.
And it was certainly no surprise.
His shady appointment to the Rochester Housing Authority resulted in a scandal to the Warren Administration, and McFadden was told by the Feds that he would have to stand down.
It is doubtful that he would now be reappointed to it if he gave up his seat on City Council.
There weren't too many other political options left for him to mull over.
He couldn't run for Monroe County Legislature. McFadden's allies already have those seats sewn up in those districts David Gantt controls.
McFadden has already lent his support to the candidacy of LaShay Harris for County Legislature in his LD, which precludes him from running there.
David Gantt isn't ready to give up the ghost where his own State Assembly seat is concerned, so McFadden can't run for that.
Not yet.
That leaves City Council, where he sits and looks bored during the segment where citizens may address them.
If he shows up in time for it.
It is a nice little mini-career for a few hours a month's work.
That's why Michael Patterson and Elaine Spaull are running for re-election for their respective City Council district seats. Nobody thought that they wouldn't, either. The perquisites are too great, and there are no term limits.
Nice work, if you can get it.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

The Democrats are desperate to unseat the Republican incumbent for LD 26 this November.
Not because he is bad, indifferent or ineffective. The Democrats have offered up their share of similar types for the County Legislature before.
And won.
Even if Tony Micciche were any good, that wouldn't matter.
It's merely that he is a Republican.
That he has no real connection to LD 26 is not an issue.
Because what the Democrats have finally come up with is a complete unknown in the northwest, too.
It has been announced that the Democrats will be running Yversha Roman, an assistant director of school-based programs at the Center for Youth Services Inc. She got that position courtesy of Elaine Spaull, city councilman for the east district, to make Roman look like she's worth something.
I have never heard of her before, and I have lived in the northwest for 25 years.
But then I never heard of Micciche either, until he ran for office four years ago.
He was never involved in the northwest before that time. He still isn't.
Neither is Roman.
She's a non-entity, but she's a Democrat.
And the Democratic committee is counting on the mere numerical superiority of registered Democrats to win, rather than any accomplishments Roman has to offer because she has none.
Steve Eckel, Micciche's Democratic predecessor, counted on the same thing.
It didn't work.
But now the Democrats have someone to challenge the Republican incumbent.
Even if nobody has ever heard of her before.
All they needed was someone to vote the way the other Democrats in the County Legislature do.
If she wins.
Anyone would have worked out just as well.
It will be interesting to see what kind of propaganda the Democrats will use to sell her to the voters.

Monday, February 23, 2015

It has been reported that Democratic sacred cow and political relic Congresswoman Louise Slaughter will run for re-election in 2016.
A year away.
Lulubelle was nearly defeated five months ago.
Her opponent was Republican Gates Town Supervisor Mark Assini.
Assini has stated that he will run again in 2016.
Obviously, this has Lulubelle's motley crew of political parasites worried.
During the 2014 election, Lulubelle had four times the financial warchest of Assini. That was courtesy of the PACs ( political action committees ) that buy elections for the candidates of their choice.
Most such committees are not local, but are completely legal if not ethical.
She had the full support of the MCDC, which mustered armies of volunteers for her.
Lulubelle also had name recognition beyond the perimeters of a small town.
Assini had little cash, no real support from the Monroe County GOP ( in money, man power or material ) and no name recognition beyond Gates.
Yet he nearly defeated Lulubelle.
This propelled Assini into national prominence. He is now regarded as the new Republican star.The Monroe County GOP won't be ignoring him in 2016.As for Lulubelle, she has spent thirty years occupying a seat in the House of Representatives.She has provided the Rochester area with sweet little nothings during her entire tenure in office.Lulubelle has become an anachronism in her own time.Her last re-election campaign proved it.It's time for her to stand down and retire.Good luck to Mr. Assini in 2016.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

That's right.
Political opportunist Mitch Rowe will be seeking the Democratic nod to succeed Paul Hainey in the Monroe County Legislature.
LD 23 is probably the richest and whitest district in the City of Rochester.
He will be running against ex police chief Jim Sheppard for the endorsement.
Sheppard is Uncle Tom-ing it for the white elitist Morelle-Clifford faction of the MCDC.
Rowe, of course, is being blessed by the black oriented Gantt-Warren faction.
It is an interesting way of playing the race card.
Rowe currently works for the Warren administration, as do his wife and sister.
That does not preclude him from seeking elected office in the Monroe County Legislature.
He previously represented LD 26 from 2002 to 2005, when he resigned, so you might say that he has experience.
And his mother is none other than City Councilwoman Carolee Conklin.
Did you ever notice the dynastic ties of Democratic politicians in Rochester?
It almost looks like incest.
Rowe was most recently Seneca County manager, until he came aboard the Warren administration.
He was replaced in that capacity by none other than James Smith of Robutrad fame.
Or infamy.
Smith himself resigned that position in December of 2014 ( a few months ago ) to become Mayor Warren's new Communications Chief.
Just coincidence?
Or another example of the ties that bind, and gag.

Monday, February 16, 2015

During last week's "State of the City" announcement, Rochester mayor Lovely Warren made much of her alliance with Republican County Executive Maggie Brooks to get Costco to Rochester.
Negotiations to get Costco to Rochester began before Warren was elected mayor.
Costco's coming to Rochester has been hailed as something that will help save Rochester, almost like the Second Coming of Christ.
It will create new retail jobs.
They will be high paying; Costco is known to pay its employees more than double what K-Mart, Gold Circle, Best Buy, McDonalds, Walmart or any other national chain pays.
It will dress up the southern gateway to our city.
Unfortunately, it is true and it isn't.
Costco will not really be creating "new" jobs.
It will only seem like it when Costco does its initial hiring.
Neither Mesdames Maggie and Lovely seem to be aware of the fact the population of Monroe County and Rochester is stagnant.
No huge population growth is predicted. Having a Costco in Rochester will not entice anyone into moving here.
So Costco will have to draw that same stagnant pool of shoppers away from other retailers currently in the area.
Furthermore, Costco will carry the same merchandise as the other retailers, though perhaps at a slightly cheaper price.
There will be nothing really "new" about what Costco will be offering shoppers.
How many different stores do we need to buy toilet paper, paper towels and soap?
The long term prognosis is not good.
As Costco draws shoppers away from other retail stores, those stores affected by the loss of revenue will either have to lay off employees or close entirely.
Costco will not be able to absorb those unemployed retail employees.
There is worse yet to come.
Rochester and Monroe County depend more heavily on sales tax revenue than they do in property taxes.
While Costco might prosper ( at least at the outset ) and pay a great deal in sales tax, those other hard pressed retailers that have lost business to Costco will be paying less.
This means that there will be no appreciable growth in the revenues raised by sales tax.
We will probably not be any better off than we are now.
The slums and ghettos will continue to exist.
Poverty will continue to be concentrated in our city.
A few hundred jobs will be created by Costco; a few hundred jobs will be lost by retailers retrenching to compete with Costco or going out of business.
Plenty of national retail stores have left the Rochester area in the last few decades, leaving employees stranded in their wake.
There will be no real growth, no real jobs created.
It is a shell game.
But Rochester will have Costco.
Big deal.
There's always telemarketing.

Friday, February 13, 2015

Delmonize Smith, Commissioner of Neighborhood and Business Development in the City of Rochester, announced his resignation today.
The excuse offered by City Hall is that Smith is accepting a job in academia in the south ( probably Alabama, from where he hails ) to be closer to his family.
Maybe it was our deadly cold winter this year that influenced him.
The Warren administration recruited Smith from RIT. He was already living up here, working in academia, far away from Alabama.
Handsome and charming, Smith was considered to be one of the stars in the Warren administration.
It is hard to understand why.
Smith had his position with the city for only one year.
He has not accomplished anything except to charm angry audiences.
That was not enough, although most people bought it, and he offered nothing more than rhetoric.
The job was too big for Smith, who was unable to translate academic theories into practical reality.
It is like the old saying, "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach."
Smith will be going back to teaching because he couldn't do the job for the city.
Smith wasted a year of the city's time and earned a six figure income for it.
It will look good on his resume.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

The title says it all.
But you wouldn't know it from what Lovely Warren says.
Tonight, Mayor Warren gave her "state of the city" address.
It should have billed as "The Lovely Warren Feel Good About Me Variety Show."
Undoubtedly, she and her staff had been working on it for weeks.
All that was missing was a theme song, clowns and choreographed dancing on the stage.
The event took place at Wilson Magnet School. The location was carefully chosen because it is Mayor Warren's old stomping ground; it is located in the heart of one of Rochester's black neighborhoods, guaranteed to provide the mayor with a cheerleading squad; and it has a small auditorium, so it would fill to capacity quickly and easily, to be recorded by the cameras of the news crews filming it.
I won't waste my time giving you a blow by blow account of the mayor's address to the citizens of Rochester. You will be able to see it on the city's website, channel 12 or WXXI in full.
Rochester's local newsrag, the Demogogue and Comicon, will undoubtedly praise it. They will probably provide a written transcript online and in tomorrow's hard copy, so you can read it there, as well.
But you will miss the visual effects that way.
What I will say is that the mayor is not personally responsible for Rochester's decay. She inherited this mess from mayors Ryan, Johnson, Duffy and Richards.
Tonight she also took credit for questionable projects that had begun under Duffy and Richards, before she ensconced herself in the mayor's office.
She also very briefly touched upon poverty in Rochester. She hardly mentioned that we are the poorest city in America for its size and that over fifty percent of our children grow up in poverty.
She never mentioned our piss-poor school system, our near moronic school board or our idiotic superintendent of schools. Our school system is the worst in the state, and one of the worst in the country.
The mayor did mention education in the most oblique way possible, that children need access to good schools.
According to Lovely Warren, we are poised to become great again, to reinvent ourselves.
This rhetoric has been used since the Johnson years, with nothing to show for it but worsening urban conditions all around.
It is a catchy phrase.
But in one year, Lovely Warren has made it all better.
In just one year.
From her mouth to God's ear.
Mayor Warren has been known to tell some whoppers in her first year in office.
At least she was consistent tonight.
And those people intimately connected to her, dependent on the city's largesse or on the city payroll, cheered.

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Every seat is up for grabs this year in the Monroe County Legislature.
Incumbents who haven't been termed out will run for re-election.
Whether or not they have been useless morons will not be considered during their campaigns.
Incumbents who have been termed out and can't run again will have to give way to new blood, such as it is.
This is the case in LD 27.
LaShay Harris has announced that she will run for that seat.
Ms. Harris is an ideal candidate.
She grew up and still resides in the 19th Ward.
She has been a tireless advocate and spokeswoman for her neighborhood.
She has been her neighborhood association president.
Ms. Harris' passion for her neighborhood suits her for elected office.
This is in stark contrast to Molly Clifford ( running for the northwest district city council seat ), a carpetbagger if there ever was one.
The deck is subtly stacked in Ms. Harris' favor, so she should have an easy victory.
She has the support of Willie Lightfoot, the current incumbent.
No Republicans will offer at candidate for LD 27, so she has nothing to fear from that quarter.
The white, elitist Morelle-Clifford wing of the Democratic party cuts no ice in the southwest, and they aren't stupid enough to attempt running a candidate against Ms. Harris.
Ms. Harris also has the support of City Councilman Adam McFadden.
That can only help her.
While McFadden might be notorious and disliked by many in the city of Rochester, he is well loved in the southwest district.
There is no accounting for taste.
At least Ms. Harris is a good candidate.